Perfect motives for a family photo album?
by WeAreCylons
Summary: "This couldn't be happening – he had to get his granddaughter off a tree on a day where he thought they'd just be spending some nice time in a park." Bill and Sophie have more of an adventure than they thought they would and the day also does not end as he expected it would. - Part of the 'All of this could have happened before'-AU world -
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: BSG (2003) and all the characters are property of Ron D. Moore. I merely borrowed his playthings to play a bit in his sandbox.

Enjoy! L

* * *

 **Chapter 1**

„Grandpa, look! Looooook!" Bill opened a lazy eye and tried to determine what had caused his granddaughter's enthusiasm. He found her standing a few metres away from the bench he was sitting on, pointing at something small that was racing across the grass. A squirrel. Before he could say or do anything, they girl had decided to run after the little animal because she had found a new playmate. "Sophie, wait, come here first!" Bill, of course in vain, called after her. She had already reached a rather big tree in the middle of the park they were spending the afternoon in and was looking up. Apparently the squirrel had been successful in finding a place to hide. Well, at least that's what Bill thought when he decided to lean back again and wait for Sophie to come over and whine about not being able to pet the tiny creature.

He had thoroughly underestimated her level of stubbornness and determination. Her arms reaching above her head, she found a branch on which she pulled herself up in a speed that caused Bill's jaw to drop. This couldn't be happening – he had to get his granddaughter off a tree on a day where he thought they'd just be spending some nice time in a park that was fun enough with slides, swings and a flying fox that was Sophie's favourite. Laura had called some minutes ago to tell him that she'd finished work and join them soon which he was looking forward to since the three of them had not been able to spend much time together due to work schedules and a holiday that Lee, Kara and Sophie had been on.

In the short time that it took him to get up and jog over to the tree, the girl had already managed to climb a few more metres and when Bill reached the place, he could only determine her little form hidden by lots of branches above him. "Sophie! Come down again! Now!" He felt a mixture of anxiety and anger inside him – why did his granddaughter have to behave as reckless as her mother and take risks at every given opportunity? "Sophie!" Sophie's head peaked through the bulk of branches. "Grandpa… I… I'm stuck and the squirrel is… it's gone." Her voice sounded whiny. For a short moment, Bill thought about his options, but in the end he had no choice. "Oh for frak's sake…," he grumbled, took his jacket off and pulled himself on that first branch as well, on his way carefully avoiding the little twigs that had carried Sophie's weight but would certainly have him take a nice fall down that tree.

Laura, with a cup of coffee from the café in the park in her hand, happily strolled towards the place where Bill had told her they'd be waiting for her. She'd had a good day at school, for a change no trouble calls from any parents and no marking for the next day. So, she was glad to be able to end that day with some quality time with her family, spent in the warm late summer sun, and maybe she could convince Bill to make dinner for them afterwards. When she reached the bench they were usually sitting on, however, she found it empty except for Bob, Sophie's gorilla, and a bag of fruit and water Bill had taken with him. Laura looked around, trying to determine where they were – they certainly could not have gone far.

Then, an incredulous expression on her face, she saw two legs dangling from a tree nearby. Her husband's legs. The rest of him was hidden behind twigs. She could hear his voice now as well. "Sophie, take that branch to your left. Noooo, not that one. The bigger one! That's right. Now, you can almost reach me, see. Go on." If the scene presented there hadn't been so funny, Laura seriously would have been worried about her granddaughter and husband stuck in a rather big tree. She thought about going over and offering her help. But, with an amused smile on her face, she decided to walk back to the bench and wait for them there because she was sure that Bill would be more than embarrassed to learn she had witnessed this event.

 **\- TBC -**


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: BSG (2003) and all the characters are property of Ron D. Moore. I merely borrowed his playthings to play a bit in his sandbox.

Enjoy! L

* * *

 **Chapter 2**

Some time later, Bill had finally managed to get Sophie on the ground again and was carefully wiping away the traces of tears she had shed because she was scared of not being in control of her situation any longer. He knelt down in front of the little girl and took her shoulders. "Sophie, you know that what you did is dangerous. You could have fallen off that big tree. Next time I want you to wait until I'm with you, okay?" Two pairs of blue eyes locked and Sophie nodded. "Yes, grandpa. I'm sorry. But the squirrel… I wanted to catch it…" Bill stroked over her head. "I know honey, but squirrels are way better at climbing than we are – trees are where they live and hide from bigger animals. And humans." The girl simply nodded her understanding and he got up on his feet again. Sophie took his hand and just as they had started walking towards their abandoned bench, Bill saw that it was occupied now by a woman he knew rather well.

For a second, he was scared that she had seen what had happened and that he would have to listen to reprimands on how to take care of children and how to not put them in danger. But when they got closer, he realized that Laura was sitting there, her nose buried in the book she had started reading the night before. When she dived into literature, she would forget everything around her, so there was a good chance that she hadn't noticed them yet. He was still less than thrilled when he considered the idea that Laura had seen him climbing up a tree to help their granddaughter down again – Bill could only imagine how ridiculous he must have looked and was not keen on having his wife see him in such a state.

In order to prevent him from having to explain himself to Laura, he then leaned down to Sophie and whispered into her ear: "Sophie, can you promise me something?" The little girl looked at him with big eyes and whispered back "Yes, grandpa! What is it?" "Can you promise me that this story with the squirrel is gonna be our secret and that all we tell about today is that we were in the park on the swings and the slides and had a game of hide and seek? Can you do that for me, honey?" Sophie scrutinized her grandfather for a few seconds and then said with a firm voice: "Of course, grandpa! I promise!" The old man looked at his granddaughter with a tender smile on his face, took her hand in his and together they continued walking towards their meeting spot with Laura.

As they arrived at the bench, Sophie who was still sniffling a bit, quietly put both her hands on Laura's knees and peered at her grandmother. "Grandma!" Laura looked up from her book with a rather surprised look on her face and eyed them both with a smile on her face after she had recognised them. "Sophie! Bill! Where are you two coming from? I thought you wanted to wait for me here by the bench?" Bill leaned towards her, cupped her face with both hands and pressed a gentle kiss on her forehead before he explained: "Sorry, Laura – Sophie and I had so much fun over there near the swings that we almost forgot about the time."

Well, it wasn't entirely a lie, to be fair – they had had an amazingly fun time there, he had just left out a bit of crucial information about the last 15 minutes of their little adventure trip in the park. Laura tilted her head to one side, looked back and forth between the two of them, lingering on Sophie's still red eyes, and for one second, Bill thought he had not been convincing enough. After all, she knew him simply too well to fall for cheap lies. But for some reason, she didn't seem to want to press the matter and decided to not ask further. Instead, she put her bookmark between the pages she had just read, threw the book into her handbag and then softly stroked Sophie's hair who was still standing in front of her, eyeing her expectantly as if she was waiting for her to address her rather ruffled appearance. "Darling, are you okay? You look pretty tired!" Sophie scratched her nose and murmured, not looking at Laura: "We've been playing a lot, grandma! I guess I'm really tired…" "Well, then we better go and get you some ice cream and grandpa some coffee, right?" Sophie looked up to her grandmother again, this time obviously relieved. "Yes, ice cream! Let's go!"

Without batting an eyelid, Laura got up, handed Bill the bag they had forgotten there earlier and took Sophie's hand, intending to leave for the café. Bill, who still couldn't believe his luck, put an arm around Laura's waist, pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear, nuzzling her neck: "It's so good to see you, honey. You have to tell me all about your day on our drive home, you look happy!" Laura, leaning over to him, softly brushing his cheek with her lips, whispered back: "And you have to tell me all about yours, Bill! Especially what made you climb up that tree without me being able to take a picture of you for Kara and Lee…" With a sweet smile on her face, she turned away from the shocked expression on his face, took his hand and they headed towards the café that was sitting on top of the hill in the park, Bill unable to figure out how to react to his wife teasing him like that.

\- TBC -


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: BSG (2003) and all the characters are property of Ron D. Moore. I merely borrowed his playthings to play a bit in his sandbox.

Enjoy! L

* * *

 **Chapter 3**

They spent another hour in the warm autumn sun, drinking coffee and eating ice cream, until Laura received a text from Kara, telling her that she had come home early and if the two of them wanted to make plans for the evening, they could take Sophie home now already. Bill, who was looking at her and obviously wanted to find out who she was texting with, only received a sly smile from his wife as a reply. „Sophie honey, your mummy is home early and wants to know whether you'd like to have dinner with her instead of us." Sophie looked up from her sundae, her face covered in chocolate ice cream. „Mummy is home already? Yaaay, I can't wait to tell her about what happened today..." She looked at her grandfather who was glaring at her over the rim of his glasses. „I mean, because we had so much fun in the park and now even ice cream, right, grandpa?" With a nod, Bill approved of her reply, even if the girl didn't know that their little secret was not a secret any longer anyway.

How in the name of the Gods had he even thought that he could have kept such a ridiculous secret from Laura, he wondered. The only motivation that really would have kept him from telling her was that he often felt insecure when it came to what he should and should not allow his little girl to do. He knew that he mostly was too lenient and gave her more freedom of choice than he'd given his two sons. Certainly, he was aware that the relationship between father and son was supposed to be different than this one, but still. And when he saw Laura dealing with issues related to Sophie, being it her stubbornness, her occasional phases of defiance or when she tried to convince them that she needed to have another cuddly toy when they went grocery shopping together – his wife was much more accustomed to handling kids and even if he'd been in the military all his life, for most of the time in a leading position, this was a completely different matter. Of course, Laura knew all about his struggles, and she was happy to tease him about it, although they also regularly had serious conversations about the topic and she tried to convince him that he was indeed doing very well with their granddaughter and that she was proud of him for being the main babysitter Sophie had.

He must have been caught in his musings because he suddenly felt a hand on his left thigh and when he looked up from the table he'd apparently been staring at for a while, he detected a pair of sparkling green eyes, regarding him with an amused look on her face. „Sophie, I think we can leave now, grandpa is with us again." The blonde girl, whose face obviously had been wiped clean in the meantime, hopped of her chair and started packing the books and and toys that had been stacked on their table until now. While Sophie was busy doing that, Laura gently cupped Bill's left cheek and leaned over to him. Still smiling, she whispered into his ear: „Honey, you know what we're going to do tonight now that we don't have to babysit our charmingly crazy squirrel-loving granddaughter? How about seaside, wine, dinner, sunset, walk at the beach?" Slowly, she straightened her back again, her fingers still softly stroking his cheek. Bill put both hands on her upper arms, carefully pulled her closer to him again and pressed a soft kiss on her lips where he lingered for a few seconds before he quietly mumbled his approval of her plans, adding „And I'm sure the evening won't end there..." with a crooked grin on his face which was welcomed by a low hum from Laura.

Without warning, however, they were pulled apart by an angry-looking Sophie, glaring at the two of them accusingly. „Grandma! Grandpa! You're not supposed to whisper when there are other people with you. That's mean. What were you talking about?" The two of them exchanged a short look of surprise before they recovered themselves. „Nothing, honey other than that we think you are going to have a lovely evening and so are we," replied Laura and slowly extracted herself from Bill's embrace and got up from her chair, taking his hand and pulling him up with her as well. Sophie was still scrutinising them suspiciously, but after Bill had relieved her from the bag, she took Laura's other hand and was happy to leave the park with them, chattering all sorts of stuff about what games she would play with her mum that evening.

Almost an hour later, Bill and Laura had left Kara's and Lee's place and were now heading for their favourite restaurant by the beach which was famous for its fresh seafood. Bill's hand was drawing lazy circles on Laura's thigh while she was driving and humming a jazzy song. When they arrived at Santaniello's car park, Bill quickly got up to open Laura's door for her and gently took her hand in hers to help her out of the car. „Oh, we're a gentleman tonight, aren't we?" Laura teased him with a twinkle in her eye. When she finally stood in front of him, she placed both hands on his broad chest and pressed her face into his shoulder while Bill put both his arms around her and held her close to him, breathing in her scent. They stood like this for a few moments, listening to the soft sounds of the sea.

„Bill?" he heard her quiet voice against his chest and hummed in response. „You know, sometimes, I wonder how we deserve to have such a beautiful life. I mean, our children, Sophie, our friends, both of us still in jobs that we enjoy, and then, of course, we have us." She looked up at him and he was surprised to see that she had tears in her eyes, but was still smiling. Carefully, he wiped away the trail that her tears had left and kissed her forehead. He pulled her closer and mumbled into her hair. „I know, Laura. I know. It's more than I ever could have dreamt it would be like. But I guess we both have had our fair share of unhappiness in our lives, maybe we just deserve a happy ending?" He could feel her smiling against his face and she replied with a steadier voice. „Yeah, maybe we just deserve that, Bill." Slowly, she pulled away from him, planted another kiss on his lips and tucked her arm under his. „Well then, let's go and be even happier, what do you think?" With a chuckle, Bill put his hand on hers and together they strolled towards the entrance of the restaurant.

 **\- TBC -**


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: BSG (2003) and all the characters are property of Ron D. Moore. I merely borrowed his playthings to play a bit in his sandbox.

Enjoy! L

* * *

 **Chapter 4  
**

They spend a lovely time over a delicious meal of seafood and white wine, and afterwards go for a walk with a gorgeous sunset over the sea. It is dark already when they arrive at home and enter their house. Standing in their hallway directly leading into the larger area which consists of their living room and kitchen, Bill helps Laura off with her coat and hangs it up next to his on the hall stand. He tries to walk past her into the kitchen, but is stopped by a surprisingly firm grip on his wrist. „Where do you think you're going, Mr Adama?" Laura asks him with an arched eyebrow. Taken aback, Bill faces her. „Well, I thought we might want to have another drink and settle down on the couch?" Laura comes closer to him, takes his face in her hands and, their lips nearly touching, says with a sneaky smile: „Settle down on the couch? I'd say we're directly moving on into our bedroom, but certainly not settle there." With that, she lets go of him and moves into the direction of their bedroom at the other end of the living room, her hips swaying, without looking back at him.

Bill, eager to follow her, locks the door first and switches off the lights in all the other rooms, trusting that he will be able to find the bedroom in the darkness. He sees a little flicker of light at the end of his way and moves toward it. Finally arrived at the door frame of their bedroom, he is startled by the picture in front of him. In the light of one single candle on the dresser, Laura is standing in the middle of the room in nothing but her panties, with a look on her face that is obviously supposed to challenge him to help her get rid of that last piece of undergarment as well. With one long stride, he covers the small distance between them and reaches up to gently lift her chin and make her look into his eyes. "No settling down, I see. But there's still something that we need to change about you here, isn't there?", he says, sliding his fingers into her panties to slowly pull them down. He feels Laura shivering under his touch, a low moan escaping her lips. With a swift move, she takes his hands which have been moving up her thigh and leads them to her breasts. "Well, Mr Adama. I'm far ahead of you on that matter. I think I might have to change something about you, too." Bill, who has already started caressing her soft mounds with his fingers, feels himself being pushed against the wall behind him while Laura is busy undressing him, starting with his dress shirt to reveal his firm, broad chest. Roaming across his muscles, she lets her hands wander further down, never breaking eye contact with him. When she reaches his fly, she does not unzip it, but cups him firmly, feeling his erection pressing against her hand. "And you thought we'd just settle down on the couch, Mr Adama?" she whispers against his mouth, brushing her lips across his. Instead of a reply, Bill slips his tongue into her open mouth, exploring her hungrily. Laura continues to slowly undress him, starting with his jeans, until he's standing in front of her in his boxers only. She presses herself against his groin, eliciting a groan from him.

"Much better than settling down," he breathes and then pushes her onto their bed with unexpected force. Laura looks up at him and flutters her eyelashes. "What, do you want me to be alone on that big bed and..." - and is immediately silenced by Bill who has kneeled down in front of the bed and is now vigorously attacking her folds with his tongue. Instead of teasing him any further, she leans back with a moan and pulls his head closer to her, her fingers curling into his thick hair.

Sliding one hand into his boxers, she grasps his firm shaft and runs her thumb across his pulsing vein. Bill, slightly distracted from his task, raises his head and looks at her with darkened eyes. Laura seizes the moment, grabs him by his shoulders and pulls him onto the bed, finally taking off the last bit of clothing that has kept her from having him as closer to her as possible. She now straddles Bill, who looks up at her, desire displayed all over his face. Slowly, she eases herself unto him and guides him into herself, eliciting a moan from both of them.

It feels all familiar, their rhythm, the heat of their connected bodies, slick skin pressed against slick skin. Laura leans down to also connect their mouths, and their tongues dance around each other, tasting the arousal in their kisses. When Bill moves his hand between them as they move faster and draws slow circles around her sensitive nub, he pushes her over the edge and panting, she rides him out, encouraging him to come with her. He does not need more encouragement than seeing Laura on top of him, completely lost in the moment, eyes closed, hands on his chest and he comes as well, collapsing inside her. They both take a few moments to just look into the other's eyes, hands caressing each other's bodies while their breathing slows down again. Gently, Laura turns them both unto their sides, not willing to break their connection yet. She settles her head on his chest, her arm spread across his belly, and, with a low hum, she confirms: "I really think we do deserve this after all, Bill."


End file.
